Mar 16, 2014 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries
Chronicles of Holly: An update.
We don’t give Holly “people” food. We plan not to feed her scraps from the table. However, I have given her Puréed pumpkin, as recommended by our breeder. I’ve also given a few slices of peeled apple recently. She LOVES them. As time goes on, she’ll graduate to certain “approved” vegetables. Her dog food is really good quality, no preservatives, all-natural crunchy food. She gets a couple of dog biscuits after “training” with me (that is, when I teach her tricks). I change her water a few times a day, and she has three water bowls — two upstairs and one downstairs. She drinks copious amounts, it seems.
Holly gets to take plenty of walks — twice or thrice a day. Long ones. We take turns. One good side effect of this? I’ve actually lost about four pounds in a couple of weeks.
She loves other dogs, but is still getting the hang of “making friends” the doggie way. She’s still a little nervous with certain bigger dogs, but still wants to play, barking out little invitations, and taking on “play” posture.
She never bothers us at night. Sleeps peacefully in our room, but starts off by sleeping in S’s room, then pads over to ours and sleeps on her little “bed” there.
She’s almost totally house-trained. Has been almost since the first week. The second week she had a few major mishaps, because I went back to school after being with her for a week, and I think her routine was disrupted. Since then, only the occasional minor incident. Almost always, she goes to the door, and lets us know what she wants. Luckily for her, we’re attentive.
I’ve taught her “sit,” “stay,” “lie down,” “shake paws,” “roll over,” (that last one is still hard for her, but she does it 70% of the time), — oh, and I’ve also taught her “fetch,” and “drop the ball.” It’s amazing what this little puppy has learned within three-four weeks!
I swear she has a sense of humor. She grins, and definitely likes to play a lot. She always goes for clothes that hang down, or things close to the edges of tables, or our coats or shoes. She does this in a grinny sort of way.
She’s very patient when I give her a bath (I’ve given her three). No trouble at all. She’s as good as gold. She doesn’t mind her teeth being brushed (W does that). She seems to like the toothpaste!
We almost never leave her alone at home. The longest she’s been alone at home was about half an hour a couple of times, when W had to leave for work, and I came home with S half an hour later.
She is secure, cuddled, well-loved, well-fed, well-walked, and well-groomed (that is to say, wiped or bathed, and brushed by me).
One negative: She chews our clothes and nips at me a little too much for my liking. HAVE to get her to be less nippy with me. She doesn’t do that to W. On the other hand, I’m the first one with whom she bonded — she leaps up to greet me when I come home, and her mouthiness turns into nippy-ness. A few days ago, and today as well, I did the Cesar Millan thing of ignoring her and going about my work, and she followed me around desperately willing me to notice her. It was hard. However, the reward? She didn’t nip. The problem is, I find her too cute. I have to train myself. Of course, I have chew toys with which I try and distract her. It works if I really mean it — she has a couple of mice, braided and knotted ropes, a couple of squeaky toys, a couple of balls, a cow horn or hoof given to us by the breeder and a nylabone. When we go out into the backyard, he adores picking up an mouthing pine one’s and sticks. The butterfly bush is a favorite to chew on, if I let her.
On another note, I love her undocked tail which wags happily when she eats her food, and droops in a strange way when she drinks water. That tail is SO expressive.
And her snout? That lovely nose? I could write poems about it!
And those rolling black eyes, so expressive, so sweet!
Thanks for reading.
Tags: Chronicles of Holly, Crabapple Downs Standard Poodles, life with fourteen-week old standard poodle pup, Puppy-Training, walks ith fourteen-week old puppy
Mar 8, 2014 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries
My past few FB posts about Holly:
March 1, 2014
Holly is a delight. Long walk with her in the morning. The pup is a pleasure to walk with. She continues to be charming and funny, and good. That’s all for now about her.
_________________________________________________________________
March 2, 2014
Long walk with Holly and S to the playground, up and down the hilly regions of the place where I live, and romping in the baseball fields near the playground. All snow-and-ice covered, it’s heaven for a snow-pup like Hol.
Got my exercise with her yesterday and today. We walked AND ran.
Feeling good.
She’s tired and asleep.
Just as it should be.
Got my exercise with her yesterday and today. We walked AND ran.
Feeling good.
She’s tired and asleep.
Just as it should be.
_________________________________________________________________
March 7, 2014
Didn’t even get on FB for a couple of days! Amazing!
Anyway, been somewhat overwhelmed with work.
Also, busy at home with Holly — taught her to sit and stay the first week, shake paws and lie down between Wednesday and yesterday. Today, I taught her to roll over.
I never knew I could do “dog training!”
Little Hol loves to learn.
She was terribly nippy earlier in the week (teething like mad), which freaked me out a little. She gets too excitedly happy when I come home, and is beside herself with joy. Her loving mouthiness turns to nipping, which she then cannot control. Commands don’t work. Loud commands DEFINITELY don’t work. After Tuesday’s somewhat exhausting session of nippiness, I learned a few things: Be calmly attentive, not overly so. Keep a low voice, a reassuring one. Distract her with a teething toy when she needs to nip. I did all three things. She calmed down immediately and was just loving. When she did resume nippiness later, I simply didn’t allow it. I walked away, or tossed her a chewing cloth, which she’d happily attack.
When she calmed down, I continued to teach her tricks all through the rest of the week, rewarding her with bits of doggy treats. She really, really loves to learn new things. She’s bright.
We’re both learning.
She adores all of us, I think. We adore her back.
Anyway, been somewhat overwhelmed with work.
Also, busy at home with Holly — taught her to sit and stay the first week, shake paws and lie down between Wednesday and yesterday. Today, I taught her to roll over.
I never knew I could do “dog training!”
Little Hol loves to learn.
She was terribly nippy earlier in the week (teething like mad), which freaked me out a little. She gets too excitedly happy when I come home, and is beside herself with joy. Her loving mouthiness turns to nipping, which she then cannot control. Commands don’t work. Loud commands DEFINITELY don’t work. After Tuesday’s somewhat exhausting session of nippiness, I learned a few things: Be calmly attentive, not overly so. Keep a low voice, a reassuring one. Distract her with a teething toy when she needs to nip. I did all three things. She calmed down immediately and was just loving. When she did resume nippiness later, I simply didn’t allow it. I walked away, or tossed her a chewing cloth, which she’d happily attack.
When she calmed down, I continued to teach her tricks all through the rest of the week, rewarding her with bits of doggy treats. She really, really loves to learn new things. She’s bright.
We’re both learning.
She adores all of us, I think. We adore her back.
_________________________________________________________________
March 8, 2014
Gone is the bliss of a Saturday morning, where I can moan quietly, roll over and fall asleep for another few hours.
No, today, I got up at 6:00 (6:00 !!!) just as I do EVERY day of the week, and dealt with Holly’s business THREE times! Made coffee, said, “What the hell, might as well go for a walk with aforementioned puppy!”
So we did — Holly and I, around 7:30 or so.
And it was a beautiful morning. The sun was gentle, the cold wasn’t bitter, and the pup and I sailed down the street, she as good as gold, and I not much worse.
We walked up and down the side streets, and went to the playground where there’s a baseball field, and MANY dogs.
She had fun! The place was swarming with dogs, and I’ve seen several of those before, pre-Holly. Mostly big ones, but a couple of small ones. At first, Holly was skittish, but they all did their usual bottom-first greetings, and soon, she was quite comfortable with a couple of them, barking out playful messages, and not skittish around the rest.
Doggy kindergarden? Doggy play-date? Maybe a meet-and-greet. The other dogs were off-leash, and soon, I’ll do the same, but not yet. I’m not ready.
Nice scene.
Now, she’s sacked out on a bean-bag, and I’ve draped a blanket over her. Only a black-grey snout is sticking out, flanked by two floppy ears.
She is SO, so, so CUTE!
And I’m so, so, SO TIRED!
_________________________________________________________________
Tags: blue brindle, Chronicles of Holly, Puppy-Training, standard poodle pup, Walks with dog